SpaceWolf -yes, that's the title I sent in, lmao- is practically finished. So naturally, I'm here I am writing 2k on Offer ;-)
"You know, it's not normal to have tea with the Headmaster."
Hermione looked up from her morning edition of the Daily Prophet. She still couldn't find the article the so-called journalist from the rag had said they'd write. She was sure it would be tucked away at a tangent to a skin-care for hags crème… "What?" She frowned up at Harry who was attacking his toast with a butter knife.
"These weekly teas. With Snape."
Her frown deepened and a spark of anger fired in his chest. He could not still hold his hatred of Severus, not after everything that he now knew. "He has tea with various people."
"You do know 'tea' is starting to sound like something else?" was Ron's unhelpfully snide little comment.
Hermione thinned her lips and glared at him. He shrugged his shoulders, gave her a faux-innocent look –all wide eyes and lifted brow— and turned back to his small piglet's worth of sausages.
Their friendship was strained. It hardly helped that in the six weeks since they'd broken up, Ron had discovered he was something of a war hero to half the school. The female half, to be exact. He was already on a warning from Professor McGonagall for lewd behaviour unbecoming to an Eighth Year.
Did it sting that she could be so easily replaced? Yes, it did. And it wasn't as if anyone else had noticed her single status and even smiled her way. She flicked a glance to the Head Table and the Headmaster's empty chair. Her belly did its usual flip-flop, even though he wasn't even there. Not that she would want that complication…
She shrugged. "I'm going to be here for at least two more years, Harry."
"So you have tea with Vector too?" He rolled his eyes at Ron's half bark of a laugh and his muttered, "She gets around" and looked back to Hermione. "Well?"
Hermione gave him a snippy little smile and folded her paper. She picked up her tea. "Tuesdays. After my lesson. We discuss my apprentice proposal."
"Well, people are talking."
Harry's gaze flickered to Ron and Hermione frowned. What had the ginger menace done now? "And what are they saying?"
"Stuff," Ron said.
She rolled her eyes. "Eloquent, Ronald."
Ron stabbed his fork into a sausage and started to eat it. Hermione held back a wince, but now –thankfully— it wasn't her job to try to beat manners into his skull. A definite plus side to their parting. "As Harry said." He waved the half-eaten sausage at her. "It's not right."
"You're our friend, Hermione. And it is getting noticed."
Hermione's lips pinched together. "This place is a cauldron hissing with gossip. As long as nothing is repeated," she fixed Ron with a hard stare, "then it will be fine."
He held up his hands, waving the end of the sausage. "Hey, it wasn't me." He finished it off and speared another. Where he put that much greasy feed, Hermione dreaded to think. She held down a shudder. Did wizards suffer from clogged arteries?
"Good." Hermione helped herself to scrambled egg and rashers of bacon. Her mug of tea was magically refilled by helpful elves. Ron's breakfast was disappearing at a rate of knots and she couldn't help herself. He was still her friend. "Ron, maybe you shouldn't eat…"
His bared teeth snapped against the tines of his fork and his blue eyes held hers. Sharp. Angered. Ah, it was like that. She wasn't allowed to say anything to him, even as a friend.
"Ron…" A Sixth Year Hufflepuff sidled up to the table, all coy smiles and flipping hair. Hermione fought hard not to roll her eyes. Harry failed completely. "You promised to help me with Arithmancy before the train this afternoon."
Hermione blinked. Hard. Ron? Whose eyes glazed at the mere mention of the word…but there was a spark there now. Oh, this was a weak dig at her chosen career path. She did roll her eyes then and turned her attention back to her breakfast. She was certain Ron was only interested in one kind of mystical relationship…and it had nothing to do with numbers.
Ron transfigured a napkin into a box and shovelled his mound of sausages and bacon inside. He clambered off the bench. "Sure, Helena." He grinned, wiped his hand on his robes and put a long arm around the slender girl. They ambled from the Great Hall, Helena's giggles cutting through the clatter and murmur of the students.
"He's not over your break up, you know."
Hermione almost spluttered her tea. Had Harry just missed Ron leaving with Helena the Hufflepuff? How was his glasses prescription these days? She shook her head and put her mug down. "Yes, playing around with every girl from the Sixth Year up will make me run back to him."
"He's not thinking clearly. He's lashing out."
Hermione shook her head. "It's over. We agreed."
"Maybe if you…" His words trailed away at her hard glare. "Not my business? It's yours. And I should keep my nose out?"
"Outstanding, Mr Potter."
"You sound like him, you know." A wince pulled at his cheek. "And Ron does have a point. It is strange to have tea with Snape."
"You used to…" Hermione lost the words. Everyone Harry had once talked to out of school hours was dead.
He drew in a breath and let it out, slow and with the edge of a tremor. "Remus was a friend to my family."
Hermione reached across the table to take his hand. She squeezed and gave him a small smile. "And the Headmaster is a friend to mine. He's even advising my father on how to play gobstones. You remember, his mother was a captain of the game here?"
"And you're spending half term with him."
"You've been sitting next to Ron for too long." She shook her head. "I am going home. Home is now Granger Hall. Where, so far, ten wizard-born children from 10 weeks to six years old currently live. Headmaster Snape oversees the care of these children on behalf of the Ministry." Sparks of anger rose in her at his thickheadedness. He'd definitely spent too much time with Ron. "Is that clear enough?" She sighed. "What is this really about, Harry?"
"Ron."
Hermione caught her fingers in her hair and pulled, fisting her hands. "He and I…"
"It was supposed to be you and Ron—"
"As it's supposed to be you and Ginny?" Hermione hissed and slumped on the bench. "Sorry."
Harry took off his glasses and pinched his nose. "That's a fair point. I thought it was us too. But like you and Ron, it's over. We agreed."
Hermione lifted an eyebrow. "And you have your eye on someone…?"
A cut of red chased across his cheeks and his mouth thinned. Tension rippled off him. Hermione had a good guess who had him quite so riled up…but she didn't push it further. Harry was obviously having his own troubles over who had caught his eye.
"It will work out." She gave him a short smile as he blinked at her, his startling green eyes quite wide. "I'm sure of it."
"Hermione…?" There was a hint of desperation in the single word. To silence her, or to demand an answer. It was probably both.
She leant across the table and with a whisper cast a discreet muffliato. Severus, with a sigh, had shown her the exact wand movement and the low hissing had vanished under it. "I've seen him avidly watching you too."
Harry reared back from her. "You…know…"
"I suspected, on both your parts." She sat back on the bench and worked to finish her breakfast. She would soon be disapparating with Severus and she wanted at least some time for her breakfast to digest.
She looked up to find Harry simply staring at her. "You know," she set her cutlery across her empty plate and it vanished, "the Headmaster is calling in favours to support the Hall. I can let you know the weekend a certain snooty blond patron will be in attendance." She picked up her mug and watched him over it. It hid her smile. She could see why her mother loved to play match-maker. The power was tantalising. "If you like..."
"Why would I want to—"
"A neutral place. No history. Hope is a very sweet and placid little girl. Hold her and you can look dashing with a baby. And we wouldn't say no to a generous donation."
"You are becoming quite Slytherin, Hermione."
"I want you happy, Harry. If he can make you happy…" She shrugged.
A wry smile tugged at his mouth, and her friend suddenly looked older. Mature. "And who will make you happy, Hermione?"
The black sweep of robes caught in the corner of her eye and she finite'd the muffling spell. Severus strode down the aisle between the tables, fierce and utterly delicious. She willed down the heat in her face, hoping that an already disapproving Harry didn't see her girlish swoon. And Merlin, she felt as obvious as Helena the Hufflepuff. She'd be curling a finger through her hair next!
"Are you ready, Miss Granger?" Severus' dark eyes dropped to her bag. With a flick of his wand, he shrank it and handed it to her. "Time moves on." His briskness was a front. Not that she minded. She was more than happy to deal with Severus Snape in all his forms.
"Yes, sir. Ready to go." She grabbed her coat and scarf and smiled at Harry. "Think about what I said, all right?"
He gave a distracted nod, the hint of a frown pulling at his brow as he fixed his attention on Severus. Hermione's stomach tightened, but when his eyes returned to her, there was no darkening. No disgust. "I will. Have a good week, Hermione."
Severus lifted an eyebrow as he strode away with her, though his pace was slowed to match her shorter frame. Hermione recast the muffliato. She had no bother in sharing her suspicion with Severus, as it would affect him too. She also wanted to see him splutter.
"Harry fancies Draco."
He slid her a dark look. An amused smile lifted his lips as he waved her out of great doors before him. "That much has been obvious for a number of years, Hermione. And I have little doubt Draco returns his interest."
"How…?"
The outer doors opened and a gust of fierce, October air swept around him. Hermione automatically whipped a warming charm around Severus before the cold attacked his venom-weakened flesh. He gave her a surprised nod of thanks.
"I was a spy. A teacher for decades. And it was my duty to keep a sharp eye on both of the little horrors. I couldn't miss it."
Hermione laughed and pulled her scarf tight around her neck. She hoped Kent was warmer than the icy October rush of Scotland. "I said I could arrange to let him know when Draco visited the Hall…with the hint that a donation wouldn't be frowned upon."
Severus gave a soft snort. "Nicely done. And the grounds are big enough for them to work out their…differences." He huffed a laugh. "It will also make my life easier if they channel their excess testosterone in a…less destructive way."
They padded down the steps together, making their way to the school gates in a companionable silence. It was comfortable, with no need to fill in the time with useless chatter. And Severus never ever brought up the subject of quidditch. That alone was a little bit of bliss.
The gates loomed ahead of them. They groaned, metal grating against, as the hinges worked to swing open. Stepping through, the gates quickly clanged behind them.
Severus lifted an eyebrow. "Side along?"
Hermione didn't trust her mouth, nor her brain, so simply gave a quick and muted nod. She stepped in close, his warm scent sharp and delicious in the cool morning air. She looked up, her heart in her mouth and grateful she could blame her no doubt deeply red face on the icy air. Almost shy, she held his impossibly dark eyes. "Closer?"
There was that twitch of his lips that she loved. "If you please?"
The words where a sinful rumble that jumped her pulse and she pressed herself too him. She closed her eyes. The scent of herbs clung to his frockcoat and she breathed him in as her arms wrapped around his waist. He was slim, but there was a fierce strength to him. A solidness. Severus Snape would not easily fall.
A wry smile pulled at her mouth. And that was her problem, right there, wasn't it?
The loop of his arms around her, secure and safe, tightened the knot in chest. For a mad moment, she thought she felt his cheek press to her hair, but it was fleeting. And gone. Wishful thinking on her part.
His feel, his scent, it was…right. So right. She wished she could revel in her feelings. But that was a dangerous pastime when the wizard was only a friend. An increasingly close friend. But still a friend with his heart bound to another. And she could not lose this friendship as the one with Ron cracked and crumbled away. She was all too aware that Severus' coolness had almost splintered her heart.
"Ready?"
The deep rumble of his voice warmed through her flesh. She closed her eyes. The whip of the wind dried the streak of wetness on her cheek.
A heartbeat later Severus' surge of magic turned them away to Granger Hall.
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